I wish I had more time to update this blog but time is limited. The mission work continues to roll along. We loved the time with the missionaries in interviews! The work is picking up and more people are being found and put on the path with the iron rod.
We are once again gearing up for transfers this week, we have six Sisters and one Elder going home and thirteen new missionaries joining us. The following week we have Zone Conferences and we will have a guest speaker, Dr. Christensen, our Area Mental Health authority. He is fantastic and will address pressing issues.
The weather here is getting colder and missionaries have been advised to get flu shots. These are not covered by Mission Medical and will need to be paid for by each missionary. Please encourage your missionary to get one, a bad case of the flu not only keeps your missionary indoors for a long time but his or her companion too. Speaking of health, we say goodbye to Dr. and Sister Mikesell, our Area Medical Authority. They have been wonderful in working with missionaries in 12 missions, counseling them on health issues and keeping them on their feet. Thanks Mikesells, you are worth your weight in gold! We welcome their replacement, local members Dr. and Sister Brower. They will be serving in the Northeast Mission Area and we are blessed to have them reside in our mission.
As the Christmas season approaches, please remember to mail packages early to avoid delays. PACKAGES MUST BE SENT DIRECTLY TO YOUR MISSIONARIES APARTMENT ADDRESS. WE CANNOT FORWARD PACKAGES THAT ARE SENT TO THE MISSION OFFICE, ONLY MAIL CAN BE FORWARDED. If you send a package to the mission office, it will wait there until a Zone Leader is in the area on authorized business and then he can pick it up and give it to your missionary at the next scheduled meeting. There is NO special mail delivery. Imagine trying to sort mail for 180 missionaries...
Have a great week. Please pray for your missionaries and those in our mission, we feel your love and support!
Sister Nilsen,
ReplyDeleteCan you elaborate on the package policy? Sometime in the past, we received some written instructions that suggested that the preferred method was to send packages to the mission post office box (via US postal first class or priority only) and that they were easily forwarded right there at the post office to the missionary's current address (to account for transfers). The instructions told us to not use parcel post or other package services such as UPS, which couldn't be thusly forwarded and would incur the wait-for-the-zone-leaders delay you mentioned.
So my question is, are you referring to the parcel post / UPS type packages, or are you referring to a general policy change regarding all packages? I don't know how many parents regularly follow this blog, so might it be worth a more formal notification if there has in fact been a policy change?
Thanks for all you do! Keep up the good work!